“Congressman Steve King should resign,” the Register editorial begins. “He has lost even the potential to effectively represent his Iowa constituents because of his abhorrent comments about white nationalism and white supremacy.” | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Des Moines Register calls on Steve King to resign

Top Republican leaders have called on Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) to resign, and and now his state’s largest newspaper has joined in.

The Des Moines Register called on the Iowa congressman to step down on Tuesday — just hours after the House passed a resolution condemning King’s racist comments to The New York Times and denouncing the white supremacist and white nationalist movements. The resolution passed 424-1, with even King himself voting for it.

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“Congressman Steve King should resign,” the Register editorial begins. “He has lost even the potential to effectively represent his Iowa constituents because of his abhorrent comments about white nationalism and white supremacy.”

King has come under fire after he asked, during an interview with the Times, why “white supremacist” and “white nationalist” had become offensive terms. He has since tried to distance himself from the comments, saying that the Times took them out of context and that he denounces those ideologies.

“I can tell you this — that ideology never shows up in my head. I don’t know how it can possibly come out my mouth,” the congressman said on the House floor Tuesday, when he announced his support for the resolution. “I regret that we are in this place.”

In the editorial, the Register said that “King has often made Iowa a laughing stock on the national stage with his offensive and absurd remarks about undocumented immigrants, comparing them to dogs or disparaging them as drug mules with calves the size of cantaloupes.”

Later Tuesday night, the Sioux City Journal, a Western Iowa newspaper that is located in King's 4th Congressional District, also joined the push in calling for the nine-term incumbent to resign. The Journal editorial board wrote it was "hard for us to summon words that will properly convey how repugnant we view that remark," in regards to King's recent racist comment to the Times.

The Journal editorial added that there is a sense of disbelief with King's comments given that his past history "contributed in no insignificant fashion to the narrowest re-election victory of his career." King won reelection in November by just three percentage points.

Following the controversy around his statement, King was removed from his committee posts, including on the House Agriculture Committee. His removal marks the first time in 120 years that an Iowan hasn’t been a member of that committee.

The Register said in the editorial that its argument for King to resign shouldn’t be taken lightly and that it’s not “based on partisan preferences.”

“He was duly re-elected to a ninth term in November by voters who had every opportunity to recognize the Kiron Republican’s caustic, racially charged ideology related to immigration,” the editorial said.

However, the editorial board said it hoped that King would look at his colleagues’ criticism and do what is “good for Iowa.”

“We don’t expect King to listen to us,” the editorial concludes. “But maybe he would listen to Grassley, Ernst, [Gov. Kim] Reynolds and Republicans in his district. They should encourage him to step aside for the good of the Republican Party and, more importantly, for the good of Iowa.”